28 NOVEMBER 2025

How to win over the locals in Mayfair

Alexander Peace - Green Street News

Rebuilding a pub in Mayfair is probably not the easiest proposition. There are, after all, locals, and then there are locals.  

Then there is the council to deal with – whose stance on heritage is almost as uncompromising as its views on sustainability. It can’t be easy producing a whole carbon lifecycle plan when restoring a Grade-II listed 18th-century tavern with single-glazed windows.

So, it is probably not a surprise that The Running Horse, Grosvenor’s lovingly restored corner pub, isn’t going to make any money. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an instrumental part of the 370,000 sq ft South Molton Street development that the Mayfair landlord is bringing forward with Mitsui Fudosan and which is due to open its doors in 2027.

“We don’t even look at it like that actually, it is so integral to the wider scheme,” says Sarah Bundy, director for major projects at Grosvenor. “With the preservation aspect and the way costs are and the complexity of the delivery, I think it almost naturally is [a loss leader].”

So important is it that despite wider completion still years away, already the right occupier is being sounded out. Even if it is a relatively small part of the scheme, it will help set the tone for the whole public realm on the largest mixed-use regeneration in central London.

“It is just so important to get it right because this for many people will be their main touch point with the scheme,” says Bundy. “It’s definitely a very strategic decision that’s been taken to really attract people into the streets to spend time and attract footfall and spend in retail places as well.”

Pubs and redevelopment

Pubs are hard propositions. Aside from the fact so many of them are going bust, they can be noisy, messy and upset the neighbours. None of which really screams Mayfair.  

But while the quarter is not synonymous with a drinking scene, Grosvenor has put a lot of efforts into its pubs recently.

It’s spent £20m refurbing the Audley and the Barley Mow, which were reopened in 2022, and the Marlborough on North Audley Street. In nearby Belgravia, it has curated a portfolio of five pubs that play a role in serving as community anchors: The Thomas Cubitt, The Alfred Tennyson, The Orange, Plumbers Arms and Wilton Arms. 

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“They’re all quite deliberate anchors to the streets that are very strategically important to Grosvenor, in terms of drawing footfall, in terms of anchoring the wider retail piece and in terms of most importantly, drawing people to Mayfair that might not historically have thought that Mayfair had something relevant for them.” - Sarah Bundy, Project Director at Grosvenor Property UK.


As more mixed-use redevelopment happens across the estate, carefully curated drinking establishments can be key to driving footfall and help modernise Mayfair. South Molton, alongside new offices, will deliver new cafes, shops, restaurants and leisure space, all stitched together with improved public realm. Oberoi, the Indian luxury hospitality group, will deliver its first UK hotel in 2028.

“We’re spending a lot of time and thought and consideration on the public realm, because to have people actually spend time and dwell in that public realm means you need great food and beverage places at a range of price points,” says Bundy.

The strategy is not to just drum up more passing footfall. It’s just as important for welcoming new occupiers. There are 150,000 sq ft of offices in the South Molton scheme, with 56 Davies Street and 60 Brook Street providing 71,000 sq ft and 78,000 sq ft of space respectively. They are the commercial drivers and for potential occupiers that Grosvenor is approaching, a local is a real draw.

“This was something I was conscious of,” says Bundy. “Will people get it or would they see it as a kind of a constraint, in some way detracting from the attractiveness of the office? We’re finding that the absolute opposite is true.

“I’m not saying it’s a deciding factor, but it’s definitely a positive that our scheme has that most others wouldn’t.”

“A pub that feels like a pub”

Bundy says many occupiers were familiar with the Running Horse before it shut its doors. It’s a similar story for locals, who have been pleased by the fact the pub is not going trendy.

“So they want to see it come back fairly similar to how it was,” she says. “What they’re pleased to hear is that we’re not trying to do something overly sanitised or trendy. They want to stand up, let off steam, have a pint in a pub that feels like a pub.”

At the same time, it is being made sufficiently open to help welcome a new age group into Mayfair – that the new retail and transport mix are attracting into the area. It is that kind of mixed approach – traditional while inclusive, classy while fun – that is very important. Not to mention hard to get right.

Davies Mews, which will form the centre of the wider South Molton Street redevelopment.

“We think that where we are in this day and age, there’s an importance to have a spectrum of a broader customer base and that Mayfair shouldn’t be a ringfenced elitist place.”  

Such a balancing act makes finding the right operator an uphill struggle. Bundy says that while there are a lot of operators out there, Grosvenor wants the operation to be inclusive, a heart of the community, while providing high-quality food and having an efficient and sustainable operation. It’s a complex job.

“So once actually you take into account all of those things, it probably does make the market more limited. That’s why we’re being so targeted because even though as you say in terms of the overall rent roll, it might not be leading the project.”

The importance of having a local pub can’t be disputed, even for a £500m scheme in the heart of one of London’s most affluent areas.

Published first in Green Street News.

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